This invention generally relates to medical devices and, more specifically, an electrocautery device used in operative procedures.
During all laparascopic surgeries involving penetration through the abdominal wall, bleeding is usually encountered which must be stopped. For example, bleeding from the liver during gall bladder surgery has been common.
There are two devices used in most laparascopic operative procedures. The first is an electrocautery which is used to cauterize or sear tissue by burning in a surgical field. The second device is a suction tube which is used to suction blood away from the surgical field so that the bleeding can be cauterized. Both the electrocautery as well as the suction tubes are typically introduced into the abdominal cavity through trocars, well known to those skilled in the art, which are sharp-pointed surgical instruments used with a cannula to puncture a body cavity.
It is important in these procedures to clear the surgical field of as much blood as possible so as to facilitate examination by means of T.V. camera, the introduction of forceps, etc., all of which are introduced through trocars.
A prior art device is illustrated which combines a suction tube and a cautery. The problem with this device is that the cautery tip protrudes beyond the suction tube and remains in such extended position at all times while the remote free end of the device is in the abdominal cavity. This makes the instrument risky and unpopular since while the device is used for suction, the exposed cautery tip acts as a sharp instrument which can and does lacerate tissue and can have the opposite to the desired effect, namely increasing the extent of bleeding instead of decreasing bleeding.
Another known device includes a sliding mechanism which permits a surgeon to manually slide the cautery tip to an extended, active position but the cautery tip must be manually retracted. Therefore, if the surgeon forgets to retract cautery tip, this device exhibits the same disadvantages as the first mentioned fixed device.